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Central Exchange
Central Exchange is an extensive trading company well known for its slave trading and former position as the dominant force across a large portion of North America. History Origin in Kansas US Army COL Nathan Abbot had been transferred along with 2,000 troops to the Fort Riley installation only four months prior to Square One. Though Riley suffered its own share of losses in the Die-Off, oral accounts describe Abbot as cool, though gracious to be alive, in the aftermath. When the former base commander committed suicide only one day in, Abbot confidently ascended the position. Though quelling unrest in the base itself was the first order of business, Abbot eagerly formed two teams to address the world outside, citing their responsibility as soldiers. The first was a team of operator-maintainers tasked with contacting other bases via HAM equipment that had been EMP-proofed. The other was a large company sent east to help secure Fort Leavenworth as a stronghold for National Guard and Army forces addressing the Kansas City-Topeka region. Both teams would be successful, but the operators sooner. Contacting a national guard camp near Tulsa, Army BG David Wilson would be the first to respond, and maybe the most important of Abbot's allies moving forward. As more bases were reached, more information came to Riley. The Cabinet, Congress, Governors; most were dead or missing, and practically all lines of communication had gone dark in the Blackout. Through the distress the news brought, the commanders assured their staff that their own roles had not changed: restoring order was their job, and they were needed now more than ever. Conversations between commanders would become private after this point; but as Abbot declared the Leavenworth mission a success and pivoted his attention south to Wichita, few people noticed. Bringing order began to take on new meanings as missions grew more complex. Clearing debris and breaking up fights had given way to asset collection, land acquisition, and direct engagement with the provisional governments of the time. Abbot proposed and executed a barrage of plans dedicated to reconstruction and efficiency that nobody could believe he'd had time to draft, each more elaborate and effective than the last. Barely six months after Square One, authority was returning to Topeka, Wichita, and parts of Kansas City. That authority was Fort Riley. Foundation Though the cities hadn't been engulfed in riot for some time, banditry, migration, and infrastructural damage were obstacles East Kansas could not seem to surmount on the trail to full revitalization. Determining the northern protectorates to be stable enough, Abbot arranged for a face-to-face meeting with Wilson halfway between Riley and Tulsa in Wichita. No documents exist detailing this meeting, but oral accounts describe Abbot as returning confident and intent on a new direction. At a gathering broadcasted throughout East Kansas, Abbot announced his plan to partner with their Oklahoma neighbors in order to pool assets, resources, and infrastructure as the civil service providers to the towns in their respective spheres of influence. Next, he elected to clear the confusion as to where Riley ended and the cities began: referencing the exchange of goods between the cities and his own facilities, as well as export to other parts of the country, he formalized the now-united Kansas and Oklahoma military elements as a private entity that would be called the Central States Exchange. Finally, he proposed a single solution to soothe the violence of raiders, the food shortage brought by migrant swells, and the disrepair of facilities: criminals —including those raiders— who would otherwise be killed would be put to work as unpaid laborers. Though he proclaimed these motions with resolution, Abbot invited representatives of each town under his care for decorum's sake, and their approval was voiced unanimously. In Oklahoma, Wilson hosted a similar exchange. Though the declaration of the CSE as private turned some heads, most understood it to be mere semantics at this point and the broadcasts passed with little controversy. Things continued as they were before only now the CSE personnel began to fade a little from the fields as they were replaced with detained criminals, some known, others not. As farms went from dozens of soldiers on duty to a single assigned to keep watch, patrols increased immensely around the cities, drastically reducing losses from raiding parties and enlarging the surplus of food that could be traded or reserved for droughts.